1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image reading apparatus, and in particular, to an image reading apparatus configured to control optical elements.
2. Description of the Related Art
Normally, when the temperature of a light-emitting diode (LED) generally used in a reading unit of an image reading apparatus is increased, the luminance of the LED is decreased. When the luminance is decreased, the density of the read image is increased. “Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-207860” discusses maintaining the temperature of such LED at a constant level by arranging a temperature sensor and a heating element near the LED and controlling the heating element based on information from the temperature sensor.
During a read operation, at times, the image reading apparatus temporarily stops the read operation. For example, when the image reading apparatus is reading a document, if a buffer memory therein becomes full and cannot store any more read data, the image reading apparatus temporarily stops reading the document.
If not controlled, the temperature of an LED is increased while the read operation is temporarily stopped, and as a result, the luminance of the LED is decreased. Thus, a density difference is caused between images read before and after the temporary stop (after the read operation is resumed), and the border between the two images is observed as a noticeable image seam. If the technique as discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-207860 is used to avoid a decrease of such image quality, a temperature sensor, a heating element, and a circuit which controls these elements are required. Thus, a further reduction of cost is hindered.